NSW Long Course Championships Meet Report '17

This weekend 8 Wett Ones put their training to the test and took to the pool at Sydney Olympic Park for State Long Course Championships. Swimming in the Olympic pool was as always a great experience for our swimmers and lent itself to some fantastic efforts with multiple PBs, gold medals, and two winning relays.

Saturday morning began with the 200free, with Tristan, Nori, and Rachelle blowing their cobwebs out with four laps of the pool. Tristan managed a PB despite a list of injuries longer than his Grindr block list, and Rachelle is getting ever closer to breaking her 2.20 target.

Next up was a thrilling race between Chris and Mark in the 100 back, with Chris just taking the age group gold and Mark taking the silver, both with 1.17s. In the 50 fly Rachelle was back in the water, and Michelle, and Andrew had their first chance of the day to #GetWett. While our women put in a great showing, Andrew took to the pool for the first time as a Wettie and didn't dissappoint with a 27.2 over 50 metres of butterfly!

In the 200 IM Rachelle took on the 4 strokes admirably dropping nearly 4 seconds on her entry time, with her busy schedule barely showing. Nori and Mark took on their signature event next with the 100 breaststroke - as always a great race between them, with Nori pulling out ahead in the second lap and finishing with 2 second lead.

We had Rachelle, Michelle, Kari, Andrew, Chris, and Nori all lining up for the splash and dash 50 free. Kari dropped 2 seconds on her entry time with a strong swim. Rachelle and Nori are both spurring eachother on to be the first below 30 seconds, but alas neither of them made it today. Once again, Andrew put in a BIG swim with an incredible 25.19, we may have a 24 second swimmer on our hands with a bit of training! ;)

Finally for day one, we had two relay teams setpping up the blocks. In the mens 4x50 medley Chris with the backstroke, Mark with the breast, Andrew with the fly, and Tristan with the free. The guys took gold with a time of 2.12.96! Great job! Though I think the real winner here was the Vas who correctly guessed our entry time to within 4 hundredths :) Our mixed freestyle relay saw Nori, Michelle, Rachelle and Chris put in a stellar 2.02.1 swim to take another GOLD! An amazing end to day 1!

Sunday, and the club fell victim to illness and injury with a few scratchings. Honourable mention must go at this point to Peter McGee who was on-deck all weekend doing an excellent job of being chief referee but was sadly too under the weather to swim.

First up was Mark with a strong showing in the 200 breast with a 6 second drop on his entry time, and a gold medal in a time of 2.59.05. Let's not mention the beard-induced drag which has been a hot topic this weekend!

Michelle and Chris competed in the 50 backstroke next, and both nearly matched their entry times and put in some good swims in a competitive field - both achieving second place and adding to the medal tally.

The blue riband 100 freestyle saw Kari, Mark, Tristan take the water in the frantic two-lapper. Firstly Kari put in a really nice swim with a new PB of 1.35.49, then Mark was up with second drop on his entry time to put in a 1.07.06, and finally Tristan dived in to produce a 1.06.79 - still chasing the elusive 1.05 marker in long course!

The 50 breast saw Kari straight back in the pool with a steady swim, and Mark backing up too and in a nail biting race just pull ahead to another gold medal - bling bling! The final event was the jelly leg inducing 200 back - not for the faint of heart - and this time only Chris was brave enough to take it on - coming home with a solid 2.50.37 and a gold medal. Great one Chris!

And that was it for Long Course Championships and for the long course season this year! Next up is Ettalong on 20th May - join us there!